Organized. Nerdy. Wannabe World-Traveler. Reader. Thinker. Lover of the Arts
Hello all! My name is Lamanda, and I am in my second year in the MAT program. Growing up, I always dreamed of teaching. However, life took me another direction for a while. During college, I fell in love with Event Planning and began working with a local Event Planner for the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. This love of planning and events brought me out to Charleston more than four years ago with the hopes that I could work in this wonderful city making the dreams of couples come true!
While I no longer plan on making Event Coordination a career, I still love the organizing and design aspect; I plan to use the many skills I learned in this industry in my classroom as well. I once heard someone say that adults who followed the career goals they had as children were the most happy in their careers. That idea has stuck with me for many years. So, a year ago, I decided to follow my dream and go back to school so that I could live my childhood dream of teaching English. I am so happy I made the decision, and I cannot wait to share my love ofbooks with my students. I think the lessons we learn from books are so important and can easily be related to students today. In high school, I was really involved with theater. My shining role was Elizabeth Bennett in our school's production of Pride and Prejudice (fake British accents and all!). Now, I enjoy watching the local productions at the various local theaters. I also volunteer at a theater downtown. When I have established my own classroom, I would love to be involved in theater again at the high school where I teach.
My Goals
My goal for this class is simple: I want to learn about various technologies and how they work. Creation of materials that students can use outside my classroom is an important task for teachers, and this is one of my weaknesses. I am not familiar with blog creation or uploading multiple lessons or units for students in one place for them. Most of my life, I have shied away from anything overly complicated related to technology. Anything more complicated than PowerPoint, and I get lost. It is always changing; I could never keep up, and I never had someone who could walk me through the necessary steps. My dad worked with technology and computers as his career my whole life. You would think some of it passed down...not so much. So many teachers I have spoken with mention Google Classroom, SmartBoard technology creations, and Prezis. I can't wait to be in the world of people who can have those conversations!
YAY for technology!!
My Philosophy...
Keep it simple. Make it memorable. Apply it to life.
I try to live by each of these elements. I know I definitely had some teachers that did! My philosophy is that students are able to learn anything you give them; it's not the material that is difficult, but the way in which it is presented. Not all students will immediately fall in love with Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Edgar Allan Poe. It is my job to find a way to connect the material with their life, to make it real for them in some way; words on paper do not always speak with students, so to say. But if you find the history, emotion, or reasoning behind them? That real life connection can make all the difference.
Prezi Project
Frankenstein has always been a classic novel that interested me. This year, my sister is a Senior in high school, and she has had the "pleasure" of experiencing the life of Doctor Frankenstein and his experiments. So far for her, the reading experience has not been the most positive. She finds the book drawn out and boring. My sister's reading of the novel and my own previous interest in the book inspired me to create this Prezi.
My purpose with this was to provide a brief introduction to the novel for my students. Sometimes classic literature can be difficult to process, and I want to make that transition into reading this type of literature a little easier for my students. By having some knowledge of the background, historical context, characters, and themes, my students can have all the tools necessary to understand the novel before reading it. All of these aspects will be researched and discussed in class as the novel is read as a whole class.
I enjoyed creating this Prezi and researching the life of Mary Shelley and her path to writing Frankenstein. One day, I hope to have the opportunity to read this novel with my students.
Digital Storytelling
The goal of this project will be for students to create a visual aid to support their research paper. Students will receive a copy of Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire." After receiving the lyrics and watching the music video together as a class, students will select one of the topics in the song as the subject for their Research Paper. To support their written research assignment, they will create a 2 minute video presentation that will include pictures, music, transitions, and captions. Students will have two weeks to complete their paper and digital storytelling presentation. While there will be some in-class work days on writing and understanding the basics of movie maker software, most of the project will be completed outside of the classroom. With this project, students will demonstrate their writing ability with their research paper, will learn about an important event in history (learning across the curriculum), and will experience the process of creating a video. The video creation process will include uploading pictures, ordering of the pictures, transitions between images, adding and editing music, and adding captions and titles to the video. The completed video will be presented to the class, which promotes the idea of students-teaching-students about various topics. This project was created with Freshman students in mind since it is a basic introduction to video creation; however, the difficulty of the assignment could be increased for a higher grade level.
In reflecting on this assignment, if I had to select the most difficult aspect, it would be incorporating music. It takes much time and a little patience to research, select, cut, upload, and edit the music to appropriately enhance the flow of the video. My second hurdle was the brainstorming process. It took some time to lock down how I wanted the video to look and sound. When I present this lesson in a classroom, one option would be to have students create a storyboard before beginning movie creation so that I can provide suggestions to aid their process. This may ease some frustration in students if they have a list pictures, captions, and songs that they would like to input in the video. Overall, the video took about 6 hours to make, without story boarding, and this is why I am allowing students a total of two weeks to complete the entire project.
This project could also be altered to accommodate for students who do not have the personal device to complete the project. With this adjustment, I would spend five days of class time to allow students to work solely on the digital portion of the project; during this class time students would create a story board for the video to help their brainstorming and organizational process, and then they would move on to actual creation of the video. Whichever path is taken, students working on their own time or during class to complete the project, the end goal is the same: to create a visual aid for their research paper that will provide them the introduction to video creation and to teach their topic to the rest of the class.
Rubric for Video Presentation The research paper and digital storytelling presentation will be worth a combined total of 50 points. The paper will be worth 30 points, and the video will be worth 20 points. Research papers will be graded without a particular rubric, but there is a rubric for the video portion; students will need to include particular aspects in their videos so as to ensure they are reaching the correct objectives, and the rubric will help guide students. The rubric can be altered as necessary, or can even be created with the whole class so the students know what is expected.
An example of my creation: The Challenger Explosion, 1986
Editing Lesson
Overview: Sometimes students need a little guidance to best edit their writing. For successful editing, students should be familiar with the editing symbols, proper conventions of grammar, and have a base of vocabulary from which to improve the quality of their writing. Students will work as a whole class, in pairs, and on their own for this lesson. Working together through peer editing will allow students to collaborate with others, give and receive constructive criticism, and evaluate a written sample for improvement.
Technology incorporation: Technology used for this activity will include the SMARTBoard and Ipads. The focus of this activity will include learning and using the editing symbols. I will first show the whole class an incorrect paper/article/short story/passage projected on the SMART Board. With this incorrect example projected, I will model how to correctly use these marks on the SMARTBoard, using the scaffolding method so that students can provide their own editing suggestions as well. Then, I will provide a handout for each student listing the editing symbols and their meaning. After learning the editing symbols, the whole class will participate in a short quiz through an online portal such as Kahoot; students will answer each question with their Ipads/individual devices. This quiz will cover editing symbols and grammar. Doing this activity as a whole class will allow for group discussion of each question if there is any discrepancy.
Partner project: In pairs, or groups of 3 as necessary, students will read and edit another student’s work. This project will not require use of any technology as each person will be receiving a hard copy of a paper to edit so that the appropriate marks can be noted on the paper itself. Students will also complete a “Peer Review Editing Worksheet.” Both the worksheet and the paper will be handed back to the student who wrote the paper.
Personal project: For further practice, students will receive a hard copy of a short story or passage that includes incorrect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. For homework, students will read the passage and correctly apply the editing symbols as needed and turn it in the next day to be checked for completion and correctness. The purpose of this activity is to further familiarize students with the editing marks as well as correctly identify, in other work and in their own work, incorrect grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Student Handouts: This is an example of the Editing Symbols handout I would hand out to students
Overview: This assignment is intended for 9th or 10th grade students, and its purpose is for students to be introduced to Oral History and the reading of Informational Texts. In order to connect students with the project, they will research their own nationalities. This nationality/heritage they learn of will be the first step in writing their essay. Many students will have multiples roots; when this is the case, the students will select one of these as the basis for the research. Once finding this country, students will then research and select an Oral History interview of an immigrant of that country. After watching or listening to the interview, students will select one of the major events mentioned by the interviewee (historical event, social event, political event, etc) and research that historical topic. A paper will be the final assessment for this project in which students connect all the pieces of the assignment: reading and analyzing informational text, researching the historical event, and their reaction to all the information they learned. The handout below will help me guide students in analyzing the oral history interview.
I want students to connect with this assignment; this is why I would like them to focus on an oral history on someone from their ancestry. They will not only strengthen their writing and research skills, but they will learning across the curriculum with the historical aspect of the project.
Daily Lesson Plan Breakdown: Day 1-This day will be an introduction to Oral History and the assignment associated with this lesson. Then, students are to research their nationalities.
Days 2 & 3-Because students have learned some history of their nationalities and have taken the first step in forming their essay, they will now be researching oral history interviews, historical events associated with their chosen oral history interview, and finding resources in order to complete the assignment. These two days will take place in the classroom with students researching on their Ipads or in a computer lab. Students will receive a copy (either a hard copy or a digital copy) of the three handouts below: "Essay Guidelines," "Oral History Analysis Tool," and "How to Write About Oral History." I will help students research oral history archives and the historical events associated with their oral history.
Day 4-This class will be an instructional session of how to write and organize an essay. We will cover thesis statement, transitions, and general organization. After the overview, students will begin to research their Oral History interviews and historical events. Students who have already completed all research can begin outlining or writing their essay. I will briefly speak with each student to discuss their progress and provide suggestions if necessary.
Days 5 & 6- These will be the last in-class work days for students. Students should take advantage of these 2 days to begin and complete as much of their essay as possible. Following Day 6, students will have an additional 2 days to turn in their essay if they were not able to complete the essay during class time.
This lesson plan was created with the assumption that some students would not have internet or computers at home. However, if students do have access to this technology that will allow them to work on this project at home, the lesson plan can be altered for more in-class writing time.
http://english-cpii.wikispaces.com/ The purpose of this wikipage is to be a collaborative effort on the part of the students. This Wiki allows the students to interact with each other in discussion posts and is a place for final projects to be posted and shared with the class. It is also a place where the students have all the information and resources necessary for their major projects of the semester in one place. If a student misplaces the hard copy of the directions, or resources list, the student only has to log into the wiki page and all of the information can be found. This wiki is created for a World Literature class because it seemed that the projects I have created so far in this course could all be used in a World Literature class best.
I have created a page for each of the 3 large projects: Oral History Project, Digital Storytelling Project, and the Group Project. The instructions, any necessary references or examples, and group members are listed on the particular project page. Students will post their final outcome of each project on that Project's page. This will create accountability for the students and cut down on excuses ("I can't find my thumb drive," "I'm not able to access the link from my email," etc.) as to why the project cannot be presented to the class on the due date. There is also a page for student questions related to the course and a discussion page for the readings, when they are assigned. Not only do the students have a "one-stop shop" for all of their project information, but students are familiarizing themselves with a new technology.
Another option for the wiki is to have an online resource for any and all Summer Reading requirements. Students will have access to the book list, reading schedule, project schedule, discussion questions, and any other important information. Because reading lists are made in advance, if a student wishes to "get ahead of the game," he or she can find information on the wiki page during summer or winter break and begin the reading even if the projects have not been finalized. The Required Reading wiki would allow students to collaborate and communicate online and share their project information with the class.
Blog
If I were to use a blog in my classroom, it would be a way of using writing to teach the content. Students would write about what they have learned and how they understand and interpret the information by using reflexive thinking to reflect on the readings and the lessons. Blogs can be a form of Personalized Learning for the students, as well. During a unit with multiple writing components, students can work at their own pace to complete assignments. For the quieter, more reserved students, a blog may be a better format to voice ideas and opinions as opposed to in-class discussions. Students are writing, communicating, and following standards, but students are also learning online appropriateness. A professor once mentioned that students should write more than teachers are able to grade in order to help with their overall writing abilities. The writing projects can be long or short,and they can be about almost anything. The point is for students to write. This blog activity is meant for students to write often and about a number of topics.
A class period would be spent to help students set up their own blogs. We would go through the process of creating a Gmail account if the student does not already have one, creating a blog title, selecting a template, using labels, and writing a sample blog to help the students become familiar with the process. Blog assignments would range from creative "journal" type entries to writing assignments pertaining to assigned reading. Students would be required to post at least once a week and also respond to or comment on at least one other student's blog. Unless other specifications are given, student blog posts must be at least 2-3 paragraphs; although not all blogs will be graded for grammar, students should utilize correct grammar conventions, punctuation, and spelling. I will not alter or delete a student's post, but I will possess the address for the blogs of students so that I can monitor for completion, appropriateness, and content; this will also allow me to share the addresses of student blogs so that other classmates can post comments. Student blog posts pertaining to any reading or specific assignment for class will be graded; for the posts that act as journal entries, only a select few class members will be selected for grading. These students will be chosen through an online generator, pulling names out of a hat, or some other random choice to ensure fairness of anonymous selection. This method of "random" grading for the more creative posts is to build accountability in the students to complete their postings.
While many more prompts will be created based on our lessons, pop culture, historic events, or in-class readings, here are some examples of writing prompts I can assign students to post on their blogs:
Write an “About Me” post to introduce yourself. Keep it appropriate and include some interesting, unique or unknown about yourself. Are you involved in any school activities? Any out of school activities? Do you work anywhere? Help us get to know you!
What are some questions you have about the reading? Are there any word you don’t know? Based on what you can infer from the reading, what is something you believe will happen later in the story?
After reading the provided article, what are your thoughts on the article? What arguments were presented in the article? What evidence was provided to support those arguments?
Find an article and analyze its tone, word choice, and use of persuasion elements.
We have studied a variety of characters in Frankenstein. Choose a minor character and write a major event from his/her point of view.
Put yourself in another's place (some major or minor character in the book). Based on your own ideas, beliefs, and principles, how would you have reacted to the situation presented in the book?
What is something you are good at or are interested in? Write a post describing how to do that or that
activity.
Write a letter to a historical icon (Johnny Cash, Muhammed Ali, Princess Diana, Winston Churchill, Jackie Kennedy, etc) about the current novel we are studying. Be sure to include a detailed summary (without giving away any important plot information!); make sure that you make it sound appealing to the person you are writing. Remember, you are considering the other person's point of view!
Now that the semester is coming to a close, what has been your favorite thing you learne this semester and why?
Reflect on your writing over the course of the semester using this blog. Do you feel your writing has improved? What is one thing you would have changed using this blog format as your writing outlet for the semester?
Technology Scholarship Project
"Flip Reading Assignments and Make Them Interactive"
This article, found on the ISTE website, mentions using technology in the English classroom, making students accountable for reading assignments. I think this is relevant because, as the article mentions, many students will use technology for a negative purpose: to read plot summaries online. I have known students during class discussions to just repeat what others before them said during the discussion; the student did not read the assignment and could not truly add to any discussion. This article lists five steps to creating higher reading accountability in the classroom, including assigning a reading, incorporating interactive elements, and tracking the reading. While discussion questions and in-class discussions are great for the student who did read, the answers are easily found online for the student who did not complete the assignment. Using an online tool not only tracks students progress of reading, but can also assess their comprehension throughout the reading. A teacher can incorporate questions for students to answer or sections for students to annotate. The article lists two software products that can be incorporated, Curriculet and ActivityLearn. For the students who may have a difficult time reading a page in a book, using this online tool can make it more interactive and interesting. Both websites include pre-made reading interactions or the teacher is able to create an original.
Why do I think this article was useful? Tracking students' reading can help the teacher and the students. By tracking the reading accomplished, a teacher can see if students are completing the reading on time or at all. If all of the pages of an assignment are not being met, the teacher can then begin questioning why. Perhaps the reading material is too tough for the students. Or, perhaps the teacher is assigning too many pages for a single night. Have the students been keeping up with the reading, but suddenly seem to be slacking? Does the timing coincide with a holiday or major school function? For the shy student in the classroom, online questions may allow him or her to fully voice a thought or opinion. If there is flexibility in the assignment, the students can then guide their own reading; this is not only leaning towards a Flipped Classroom but also a Personal Based Learning environment. The teacher is also able to track students' responses to the questions, as well. This monitoring can spark deeper, detailed lessons in the classroom if students seem to be struggling on concepts or speed lessons along if students are mastering all concepts. I believe that this technology would be a great integration into the ELA high school classroom; these technologies are altering the ways in which students read and use technology. The Augmentation stage of the SAMR platform "contributes to a change in the learning environment to improve the functionality of the learning experience" (Budhai & Taddei, 3). Using these tracking tools could immensely help students when learning and reading in the English classroom. Teachers are also able to specify the learning environment and activities to help students master the necessary concepts for each lesson.
For this assignment I created a project focused on Edgar Allan Poe and used two emerging technologies: EdPuzzle and Padlet. The links to my assignment associated with each website are below.
EdPuzzle is a website that allows educators to find and alter videos. Teachers are able to search the EdPuzzle website, youtube, or other video sites for a video to use in their classroom. A teacher is also able to upload their own video for editing. Once a video is found and selected, teachers are able to insert questions, add audio notes, or cut the video. My EdPuzzle video is a short biography of Edgar Allan Poe. I added questions into the video that students will answer as the video is playing; I will show this to the whole class on the SmartBoard. Students will answer the questions associated with the video on their Ipads through the Padlet website.
Padlet
https://padlet.com/lamanda_howell/4r0uyyrel8rj Padlet is a website that allows for multiple responses from various people to be shown on one screen. Padlet will by used by the students to answer the questions that have been inserted into the video. Students will have the link to the specific Padlet screen associated with the video, and they will participate on their individual Ipads. Since the answers of all classmates will be shown on the Padlet screen, there is no need to show it on the SmartBoard. Once the answers of all students have been submitted, we can discuss the responses.
Revision Project: Prezi
For my Revision Project, I have chosen to remake my Prezi Project; this time I am focusing on a Poetry Unit. This Prezi will be an introduction to the unit, including some information on various types of poetry with some examples. Why a Prezi for a Poetry Unit? I believe when a new lesson or unit begins in the classroom, the teacher should provide students with an overview of the information. This Prezi technology is able to do that and more. Because these presentations are available online and can be viewed anytime, it gives students the opportunity for review if necessary. The Prezi design is interesting and customizable which may grab students' attention for the unit. My Prezi is below:
The Prezi is only the beginning of the Unit, as I have stated. After learning about and reading some various types of poetry, students will then complete a variety of projects to show their knowledge of the material. These projects will be completed as we advance through the unit and turned in as a "Poetry Portfolio" at the completion of the unit. Below, I have a brief description of some of the activities:
Images: Students will select 3 different poems (preferably NOT ones studied in class). For each poem, students will select 2 images based on the figurative language, imagery, and emotions felt from the poem. With each picture, students will write a brief paragraph explaining their decision to select that particular image/picture. When submitting this assignment, students will submit a copy of the poems, the two pictures for each poem (these can be copied and pasted from online or cut out of magazines/newspapers/etc and glued to a separate sheet of paper), and the brief paragraph below each picture or on the back of the image. Because this project is subjective in nature, the student will be graded on completion and cohesion of the paragraphs.
Poetry Creation Stations: For this activity, there will be multiple writing stations set up around the classroom. Depending on the interests of the students and teacher, the stations can be changed. I have chosen a Haiku station, Blackout Poetry station, Shape Poetry station, Free Verse Poetry station, and an Acrostic Poetry station. Students will select 3 out of the 5 stations to complete. When completed, the students will include these poems as part of their Poetry Portfolio. Students will be graded on their ability to recreate the particular poetry type at each station.
Haiku: This station will include a variety of pictures and images of nature from newspapers, magazines, books, etc. Students will select 3 different pictures as their inspiration for a haiku. The student will write 3 different haiku poems at this station.
Blackout Poetry: Students will use the technique of Found Poetry for this activity. This station will include magazine articles, newspaper clips, song lyrics, or other long poems. Students are to select one of the given pieces of writing (or bring in their own) to complete this activity. Students will select words that will be a part of their poem while "blacking out" the rest of the words using a pen or marker.
Shape: At this station, students will create a poem in a shape or a form. For example, someone on the football team can create a poem in the shape of a football, or someone in choir could create a poem in the shape of a music note. This allows for a large amount of creativity for the students. There will be multiple examples of shape poems provided for the students for inspiration.
Free Verse: This station will include a set of dice. To determine how many lines will be in the poem, students will roll both dice; the number showing is the total number of lines in the poem. For each line of the poem, students will roll a single die to determine the number of words per line.
Acrostic: Students will use the letters of their first and last name to create an Acrostic poem. Students may use any rhythm or rhyme scheme.
This poetry unit could be adjusted to fit a variety of other projects in this course. I could create a Kahoot! quiz or Jeopardy Rocks game (emerging technology) to test students' knowledge of poetry basics. These game-like reviews could be used at the beginning of the unit to test prior student knowledge or at the end of the unit for a unit review. Because I have already created a Wikipage, I could simply add an additional tab for this Poetry Unit for students to post their Poetry Portfolio (wiki creation project). Once the basic information has been covered and students are in the process of writing their own poetry, students could post these writings online to their blogs created for the classroom (Blog project). By having students post their poems online (whether on a wikipage or a blog), I believe students will work harder since it is likely that fellow classmates will read their work. Although I could have revised this project in a number of ways, I chose to recreate a Prezi, so that I would have the beginning of a Poetry Unit. I can always adjust and alter projects and the platform in which students turn in information; but, by doing this, I have created a reusable resource for myself or other future teachers to open a poetry unit.
Reflection
Learning about different technology platforms, techniques, and websites has been interesting and will help me in my future classroom. I enjoyed being able to work with Prezi technology. While I believe it has its place in the classroom, I believe that I will still use PowerPoint for many classroom presentations. Oral Histories was another topic introduced to me. There are so many ways these could be used in the high school English classroom. The project I created is quite involved, but a teacher could play a single oral history for the students or focus on a specific country or timeline for an oral history research project. Also, finding Edpuzzle was a great outcome of this class! With that technology, not only will I be able to show videos to my students (with good reasoning and education behind them!), but I can quiz students throughout the video and ensure that they are actually watching the video.
The project I found the most difficult was the Wiki project. This is not my first experience using a wiki, but it was my first experience creating a wiki page. As a user, the wiki can be difficult to format; as a creator, the entire process was quite a battle. It took multiple tries before I had the basic outline down that I was going for. I even had to completely start over after creating a page because I was not able to get the ordering of the tabs in the correct order. With time and practice, I'm sure the wiki creation would become more seamless, but for my first try, it was a struggle. Although I had a difficult time with it, I believe the wiki is a great tool for students to have access to multiple classroom resources without having to be in the classroom.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing the outcome of all the projects. Even though we all had the same end goal, none of the projects were the same. Different technologies, different lesson plans, and different final projects were created. Not only do I have a good base to build upon with my own projects, but I have been introduced to other ideas through the rest of the class as well. Even though I found the wiki project the most difficult, it is due to the wiki that I am able to have all of my projects in one place for future reference!
My initial thought entering this classroom was that technology was overwhelming; in all honesty, I still feel that way! But, I am happy for the experience I received creating the various projects. I do not yet know to what degree I will use technology in my classroom; this will depend on the resources I have provided in the classroom. But, even without working in a school that has One-to-One technology, I can still incorporate various videos and activities to be shown on the SmartBoard. This course has required that I create lesson plans that focus on technology; previous lesson plans I created did not include that technological aspect. Through this class I have been introduced to a great addition to my future lesson plans, and I am open to continuing to learn about the constantly changing world of educational technology! In order to be the best teachers we can be, we must still be open to learning as much as possible in our field.
About Me
Organized. Nerdy. Wannabe World-Traveler. Reader. Thinker. Lover of the ArtsWhile I no longer plan on making Event Coordination a career, I still love the organizing and design aspect; I plan to use the many skills I learned in this industry in my classroom as well. I once heard someone say that adults who followed the career goals they had as children were the most happy in their careers. That idea has stuck with me for many years. So, a year ago, I decided to follow my dream and go back to school so that I could live my childhood dream of teaching English. I am so happy I made the decision, and I cannot wait to share my love ofbooks with my students. I think the lessons we learn from books are so important and can easily be related to students today. In high school, I was really involved with theater. My shining role was Elizabeth Bennett in our school's production of Pride and Prejudice (fake British accents and all!). Now, I enjoy watching the local productions at the various local theaters. I also volunteer at a theater downtown. When I have established my own classroom, I would love to be involved in theater again at the high school where I teach.
My Goals
My goal for this class is simple: I want to learn about various technologies and how they work. Creation of materials that students can use outside my classroom is an important task for teachers, and this is one of my weaknesses. I am not familiar with blog creation or uploading multiple lessons or units for students in one place for them. Most of my life, I have shied away from anything overly complicated related to technology. Anything more complicated than PowerPoint, and I get lost. It is always changing; I could never keep up, and I never had someone who could walk me through the necessary steps. My dad worked with technology and computers as his career my whole life. You would think some of it passed down...not so much. So many teachers I have spoken with mention Google Classroom, SmartBoard technology creations, and Prezis. I can't wait to be in the world of people who can have those conversations!
My Philosophy...
Keep it simple. Make it memorable. Apply it to life.
I try to live by each of these elements. I know I definitely had some teachers that did! My philosophy is that students are able to learn anything you give them; it's not the material that is difficult, but the way in which it is presented. Not all students will immediately fall in love with Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Edgar Allan Poe. It is my job to find a way to connect the material with their life, to make it real for them in some way; words on paper do not always speak with students, so to say. But if you find the history, emotion, or reasoning behind them? That real life connection can make all the difference.
Prezi Project
Frankenstein has always been a classic novel that interested me. This year, my sister is a Senior in high school, and she has had the "pleasure" of experiencing the life of Doctor Frankenstein and his experiments. So far for her, the reading experience has not been the most positive. She finds the book drawn out and boring. My sister's reading of the novel and my own previous interest in the book inspired me to create this Prezi.
My purpose with this was to provide a brief introduction to the novel for my students. Sometimes classic literature can be difficult to process, and I want to make that transition into reading this type of literature a little easier for my students. By having some knowledge of the background, historical context, characters, and themes, my students can have all the tools necessary to understand the novel before reading it. All of these aspects will be researched and discussed in class as the novel is read as a whole class.
I enjoyed creating this Prezi and researching the life of Mary Shelley and her path to writing Frankenstein. One day, I hope to have the
opportunity to read this novel with my students.
Digital Storytelling
The goal of this project will be for students to create a visual aid to support their research paper. Students will receive a copy of Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire." After receiving the lyrics and watching the music video together as a class, students will select one of the topics in the song as the subject for their Research Paper. To support their written research assignment, they will create a 2 minute video presentation that will include pictures, music, transitions, and captions. Students will have two weeks to complete their paper and digital storytelling presentation. While there will be some in-class work days on writing and understanding the basics of movie maker software, most of the project will be completed outside of the classroom. With this project, students will demonstrate their writing ability with their research paper, will learn about an important event in history (learning across the curriculum), and will experience the process of creating a video. The video creation process will include uploading pictures, ordering of the pictures, transitions between images, adding and editing music, and adding captions and titles to the video. The completed video will be presented to the class, which promotes the idea of students-teaching-students about various topics. This project was created with Freshman students in mind since it is a basic introduction to video creation; however, the difficulty of the assignment could be increased for a higher grade level.
In reflecting on this assignment, if I had to select the most difficult aspect, it would be incorporating music. It takes much time and a little patience to research, select, cut, upload, and edit the music to appropriately enhance the flow of the video. My second hurdle was the brainstorming process. It took some time to lock down how I wanted the video to look and sound. When I present this lesson in a classroom, one option would be to have students create a storyboard before beginning movie creation so that I can provide suggestions to aid their process. This may ease some frustration in students if they have a list pictures, captions, and songs that they would like to input in the video. Overall, the video took about 6 hours to make, without story boarding, and this is why I am allowing students a total of two weeks to complete the entire project.
This project could also be altered to accommodate for students who do not have the personal device to complete the project. With this adjustment, I would spend five days of class time to allow students to work solely on the digital portion of the project; during this class time students would create a story board for the video to help their brainstorming and organizational process, and then they would move on to actual creation of the video. Whichever path is taken, students working on their own time or during class to complete the project, the end goal is the same: to create a visual aid for their research paper that will provide them the introduction to video creation and to teach their topic to the rest of the class.
Standards:
Writing.MCC.2
Writing.L.4
Writing.L.5
Communication.MC.2.2 & 2.3
Communication.MC.3.1 & 3.2
Communication.LCS.5.1 & 5.2
Lyrics and Music:
Rubric for Video Presentation
The research paper and digital storytelling presentation will be worth a combined total of 50 points. The paper will be worth 30 points, and the video will be worth 20 points. Research papers will be graded without a particular rubric, but there is a rubric for the video portion; students will need to include particular aspects in their videos so as to ensure they are reaching the correct objectives, and the rubric will help guide students. The rubric can be altered as necessary, or can even be created with the whole class so the students know what is expected.
An example of my creation: The Challenger Explosion, 1986
Editing Lesson
Overview: Sometimes students need a little guidance to best edit their writing. For successful editing, students should be familiar with the editing symbols, proper conventions of grammar, and have a base of vocabulary from which to improve the quality of their writing. Students will work as a whole class, in pairs, and on their own for this lesson. Working together through peer editing will allow students to collaborate with others, give and receive constructive criticism, and evaluate a written sample for improvement.
Technology incorporation: Technology used for this activity will include the SMARTBoard and Ipads. The focus of this activity will include learning and using the editing symbols. I will first show the whole class an incorrect paper/article/short story/passage projected on the SMART Board. With this incorrect example projected, I will model how to correctly use these marks on the SMARTBoard, using the scaffolding method so that students can provide their own editing suggestions as well. Then, I will provide a handout for each student listing the editing symbols and their meaning. After learning the editing symbols, the whole class will participate in a short quiz through an online portal such as Kahoot; students will answer each question with their Ipads/individual devices. This quiz will cover editing symbols and grammar. Doing this activity as a whole class will allow for group discussion of each question if there is any discrepancy.
Partner project: In pairs, or groups of 3 as necessary, students will read and edit another student’s work. This project will not require use of any technology as each person will be receiving a hard copy of a paper to edit so that the appropriate marks can be noted on the paper itself. Students will also complete a “Peer Review Editing Worksheet.” Both the worksheet and the paper will be handed back to the student who wrote the paper.
Personal project: For further practice, students will receive a hard copy of a short story or passage that includes incorrect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. For homework, students will read the passage and correctly apply the editing symbols as needed and turn it in the next day to be checked for completion and correctness. The purpose of this activity is to further familiarize students with the editing marks as well as correctly identify, in other work and in their own work, incorrect grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Student Handouts:
This is an example of the Editing Symbols handout I would hand out to students
Peer Review worksheet
Oral History
Overview:
This assignment is intended for 9th or 10th grade students, and its purpose is for students to be introduced to Oral History and the reading of Informational Texts. In order to connect students with the project, they will research their own nationalities. This nationality/heritage they learn of will be the first step in writing their essay. Many students will have multiples roots; when this is the case, the students will select one of these as the basis for the research. Once finding this country, students will then research and select an Oral History interview of an immigrant of that country. After watching or listening to the interview, students will select one of the major events mentioned by the interviewee (historical event, social event, political event, etc) and research that historical topic. A paper will be the final assessment for this project in which students connect all the pieces of the assignment: reading and analyzing informational text, researching the historical event, and their reaction to all the information they learned. The handout below will help me guide students in analyzing the oral history interview.
I want students to connect with this assignment; this is why I would like them to focus on an oral history on someone from their ancestry. They will not only strengthen their writing and research skills, but they will learning across the curriculum with the historical aspect of the project.
Standards:
CCSS.RI.MC.Standards 5 & 6
CCSS.RI.LCS Standards 8.1 & 8.2
CCSS.W.MCC Standards 2 & 3
Daily Lesson Plan Breakdown:
Day 1-This day will be an introduction to Oral History and the assignment associated with this lesson. Then, students are to research their nationalities.
Days 2 & 3-Because students have learned some history of their nationalities and have taken the first step in forming their essay, they will now be researching oral history interviews, historical events associated with their chosen oral history interview, and finding resources in order to complete the assignment. These two days will take place in the classroom with students researching on their Ipads or in a computer lab. Students will receive a copy (either a hard copy or a digital copy) of the three handouts below: "Essay Guidelines," "Oral History Analysis Tool," and "How to Write About Oral History." I will help students research oral history archives and the historical events associated with their oral history.
Day 4-This class will be an instructional session of how to write and organize an essay. We will cover thesis statement, transitions, and general organization. After the overview, students will begin to research their Oral History interviews and historical events. Students who have already completed all research can begin outlining or writing their essay. I will briefly speak with each student to discuss their progress and provide suggestions if necessary.
Days 5 & 6- These will be the last in-class work days for students. Students should take advantage of these 2 days to begin and complete as much of their essay as possible. Following Day 6, students will have an additional 2 days to turn in their essay if they were not able to complete the essay during class time.
This lesson plan was created with the assumption that some students would not have internet or computers at home. However, if students do have access to this technology that will allow them to work on this project at home, the lesson plan can be altered for more in-class writing time.
Student Handouts:
Oral History Archive References:
"Southern Oral History Project" http://sohp.org/
"Voice/Vision Holocaust Oral History Archive" http://holocaust.umd.umich.edu/
Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/
This website has it's own page of references that could be beneficial for students as well: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/online.html#exemp
Wiki
http://english-cpii.wikispaces.com/
The purpose of this wikipage is to be a collaborative effort on the part of the students. This Wiki allows the students to interact with each other in discussion posts and is a place for final projects to be posted and shared with the class. It is also a place where the students have all the information and resources necessary for their major projects of the semester in one place. If a student misplaces the hard copy of the directions, or resources list, the student only has to log into the wiki page and all of the information can be found. This wiki is created for a World Literature class because it seemed that the projects I have created so far in this course could all be used in a World Literature class best.
I have created a page for each of the 3 large projects: Oral History Project, Digital Storytelling Project, and the Group Project. The instructions, any necessary references or examples, and group members are listed on the particular project page. Students will post their final outcome of each project on that Project's page. This will create accountability for the students and cut down on excuses ("I can't find my thumb drive," "I'm not able to access the link from my email," etc.) as to why the project cannot be presented to the class on the due date. There is also a page for student questions related to the course and a discussion page for the readings, when they are assigned. Not only do the students have a "one-stop shop" for all of their project information, but students are familiarizing themselves with a new technology.
Another option for the wiki is to have an online resource for any and all Summer Reading requirements. Students will have access to the book list, reading schedule, project schedule, discussion questions, and any other important information. Because reading lists are made in advance, if a student wishes to "get ahead of the game," he or she can find information on the wiki page during summer or winter break and begin the reading even if the projects have not been finalized. The Required Reading wiki would allow students to collaborate and communicate online and share their project information with the class.
Blog
If I were to use a blog in my classroom, it would be a way of using writing to teach the content. Students would write about what they have learned and how they understand and interpret the information by using reflexive thinking to reflect on the readings and the lessons. Blogs can be a form of Personalized Learning for the students, as well. During a unit with multiple writing components, students can work at their own pace to complete assignments. For the quieter, more reserved students, a blog may be a better format to voice ideas and opinions as opposed to in-class discussions. Students are writing, communicating, and following standards, but students are also learning online appropriateness. A professor once mentioned that students should write more than teachers are able to grade in order to help with their overall writing abilities. The writing projects can be long or short,and they can be about almost anything. The point is for students to write. This blog activity is meant for students to write often and about a number of topics.
A class period would be spent to help students set up their own blogs. We would go through the process of creating a Gmail account if the student does not already have one, creating a blog title, selecting a template, using labels, and writing a sample blog to help the students become familiar with the process. Blog assignments would range from creative "journal" type entries to writing assignments pertaining to assigned reading. Students would be required to post at least once a week and also respond to or comment on at least one other student's blog. Unless other specifications are given, student blog posts must be at least 2-3 paragraphs; although not all blogs will be graded for grammar, students should utilize correct grammar conventions, punctuation, and spelling. I will not alter or delete a student's post, but I will possess the address for the blogs of students so that I can monitor for completion, appropriateness, and content; this will also allow me to share the addresses of student blogs so that other classmates can post comments. Student blog posts pertaining to any reading or specific assignment for class will be graded; for the posts that act as journal entries, only a select few class members will be selected for grading. These students will be chosen through an online generator, pulling names out of a hat, or some other random choice to ensure fairness of anonymous selection. This method of "random" grading for the more creative posts is to build accountability in the students to complete their postings.
While many more prompts will be created based on our lessons, pop culture, historic events, or in-class readings, here are some examples of writing prompts I can assign students to post on their blogs:
activity.
Technology Scholarship Project
"Flip Reading Assignments and Make Them Interactive"
https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=563&category=Toolbox&article=Flip+reading+assignments+and+make+them+interactiveThis article, found on the ISTE website, mentions using technology in the English classroom, making students accountable for reading assignments. I think this is relevant because, as the article mentions, many students will use technology for a negative purpose: to read plot summaries online. I have known students during class discussions to just repeat what others before them said during the discussion; the student did not read the assignment and could not truly add to any discussion. This article lists five steps to creating higher reading accountability in the classroom, including assigning a reading, incorporating interactive elements, and tracking the reading. While discussion questions and in-class discussions are great for the student who did read, the answers are easily found online for the student who did not complete the assignment. Using an online tool not only tracks students progress of reading, but can also assess their comprehension throughout the reading. A teacher can incorporate questions for students to answer or sections for students to annotate. The article lists two software products that can be incorporated, Curriculet and ActivityLearn. For the students who may have a difficult time reading a page in a book, using this online tool can make it more interactive and interesting. Both websites include pre-made reading interactions or the teacher is able to create an original.
Why do I think this article was useful? Tracking students' reading can help the teacher and the students. By tracking the reading accomplished, a teacher can see if students are completing the reading on time or at all. If all of the pages of an assignment are not being met, the teacher can then begin questioning why. Perhaps the reading material is too tough for the students. Or, perhaps the teacher is assigning too many pages for a single night. Have the students been keeping up with the reading, but suddenly seem to be slacking? Does the timing coincide with a holiday or major school function? For the shy student in the classroom, online questions may allow him or her to fully voice a thought or opinion. If there is flexibility in the assignment, the students can then guide their own reading; this is not only leaning towards a Flipped Classroom but also a Personal Based Learning environment. The teacher is also able to track students' responses to the questions, as well. This monitoring can spark deeper, detailed lessons in the classroom if students seem to be struggling on concepts or speed lessons along if students are mastering all concepts. I believe that this technology would be a great integration into the ELA high school classroom; these technologies are altering the ways in which students read and use technology. The Augmentation stage of the SAMR platform "contributes to a change in the learning environment to improve the functionality of the learning experience" (Budhai & Taddei, 3). Using these tracking tools could immensely help students when learning and reading in the English classroom. Teachers are also able to specify the learning environment and activities to help students master the necessary concepts for each lesson.
Emerging Technology
For this assignment I created a project focused on Edgar Allan Poe and used two emerging technologies: EdPuzzle and Padlet. The links to my assignment associated with each website are below.
EdPuzzle
https://edpuzzle.com/assignments/581fdc0bd000c4ed3ecef410/watchEdPuzzle is a website that allows educators to find and alter videos. Teachers are able to search the EdPuzzle website, youtube, or other video sites for a video to use in their classroom. A teacher is also able to upload their own video for editing. Once a video is found and selected, teachers are able to insert questions, add audio notes, or cut the video. My EdPuzzle video is a short biography of Edgar Allan Poe. I added questions into the video that students will answer as the video is playing; I will show this to the whole class on the SmartBoard. Students will answer the questions associated with the video on their Ipads through the Padlet website.
Padlet
https://padlet.com/lamanda_howell/4r0uyyrel8rjPadlet is a website that allows for multiple responses from various people to be shown on one screen. Padlet will by used by the students to answer the questions that have been inserted into the video. Students will have the link to the specific Padlet screen associated with the video, and they will participate on their individual Ipads. Since the answers of all classmates will be shown on the Padlet screen, there is no need to show it on the SmartBoard. Once the answers of all students have been submitted, we can discuss the responses.
Revision Project: Prezi
For my Revision Project, I have chosen to remake my Prezi Project; this time I am focusing on a Poetry Unit. This Prezi will be an introduction to the unit, including some information on various types of poetry with some examples. Why a Prezi for a Poetry Unit? I believe when a new lesson or unit begins in the classroom, the teacher should provide students with an overview of the information. This Prezi technology is able to do that and more. Because these presentations are available online and can be viewed anytime, it gives students the opportunity for review if necessary. The Prezi design is interesting and customizable which may grab students' attention for the unit. My Prezi is below:
The Prezi is only the beginning of the Unit, as I have stated. After learning about and reading some various types of poetry, students will then complete a variety of projects to show their knowledge of the material. These projects will be completed as we advance through the unit and turned in as a "Poetry Portfolio" at the completion of the unit. Below, I have a brief description of some of the activities:
Images:
Students will select 3 different poems (preferably NOT ones studied in class). For each poem, students will select 2 images based on the figurative language, imagery, and emotions felt from the poem. With each picture, students will write a brief paragraph explaining their decision to select that particular image/picture. When submitting this assignment, students will submit a copy of the poems, the two pictures for each poem (these can be copied and pasted from online or cut out of magazines/newspapers/etc and glued to a separate sheet of paper), and the brief paragraph below each picture or on the back of the image. Because this project is subjective in nature, the student will be graded on completion and cohesion of the paragraphs.
Poetry Creation Stations:
For this activity, there will be multiple writing stations set up around the classroom. Depending on the interests of the students and teacher, the stations can be changed. I have chosen a Haiku station, Blackout Poetry station, Shape Poetry station, Free Verse Poetry station, and an Acrostic Poetry station. Students will select 3 out of the 5 stations to complete. When completed, the students will include these poems as part of their Poetry Portfolio. Students will be graded on their ability to recreate the particular poetry type at each station.
Haiku: This station will include a variety of pictures and images of nature from newspapers, magazines, books, etc. Students will select 3 different pictures as their inspiration for a haiku. The student will write 3 different haiku poems at this station.
Blackout Poetry: Students will use the technique of Found Poetry for this activity. This station will include magazine articles, newspaper clips, song lyrics, or other long poems. Students are to select one of the given pieces of writing (or bring in their own) to complete this activity. Students will select words that will be a part of their poem while "blacking out" the rest of the words using a pen or marker.
Shape: At this station, students will create a poem in a shape or a form. For example, someone on the football team can create a poem in the shape of a football, or someone in choir could create a poem in the shape of a music note. This allows for a large amount of creativity for the students. There will be multiple examples of shape poems provided for the students for inspiration.
Free Verse: This station will include a set of dice. To determine how many lines will be in the poem, students will roll both dice; the number showing is the total number of lines in the poem. For each line of the poem, students will roll a single die to determine the number of words per line.
Acrostic: Students will use the letters of their first and last name to create an Acrostic poem. Students may use any rhythm or rhyme scheme.
This poetry unit could be adjusted to fit a variety of other projects in this course. I could create a Kahoot! quiz or Jeopardy Rocks game (emerging technology) to test students' knowledge of poetry basics. These game-like reviews could be used at the beginning of the unit to test prior student knowledge or at the end of the unit for a unit review. Because I have already created a Wikipage, I could simply add an additional tab for this Poetry Unit for students to post their Poetry Portfolio (wiki creation project). Once the basic information has been covered and students are in the process of writing their own poetry, students could post these writings online to their blogs created for the classroom (Blog project). By having students post their poems online (whether on a wikipage or a blog), I believe students will work harder since it is likely that fellow classmates will read their work. Although I could have revised this project in a number of ways, I chose to recreate a Prezi, so that I would have the beginning of a Poetry Unit. I can always adjust and alter projects and the platform in which students turn in information; but, by doing this, I have created a reusable resource for myself or other future teachers to open a poetry unit.
Reflection
Learning about different technology platforms, techniques, and websites has been interesting and will help me in my future classroom. I enjoyed being able to work with Prezi technology. While I believe it has its place in the classroom, I believe that I will still use PowerPoint for many classroom presentations. Oral Histories was another topic introduced to me. There are so many ways these could be used in the high school English classroom. The project I created is quite involved, but a teacher could play a single oral history for the students or focus on a specific country or timeline for an oral history research project. Also, finding Edpuzzle was a great outcome of this class! With that technology, not only will I be able to show videos to my students (with good reasoning and education behind them!), but I can quiz students throughout the video and ensure that they are actually watching the video.
The project I found the most difficult was the Wiki project. This is not my first experience using a wiki, but it was my first experience creating a wiki page. As a user, the wiki can be difficult to format; as a creator, the entire process was quite a battle. It took multiple tries before I had the basic outline down that I was going for. I even had to completely start over after creating a page because I was not able to get the ordering of the tabs in the correct order. With time and practice, I'm sure the wiki creation would become more seamless, but for my first try, it was a struggle. Although I had a difficult time with it, I believe the wiki is a great tool for students to have access to multiple classroom resources without having to be in the classroom.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing the outcome of all the projects. Even though we all had the same end goal, none of the projects were the same. Different technologies, different lesson plans, and different final projects were created. Not only do I have a good base to build upon with my own projects, but I have been introduced to other ideas through the rest of the class as well. Even though I found the wiki project the most difficult, it is due to the wiki that I am able to have all of my projects in one place for future reference!
My initial thought entering this classroom was that technology was overwhelming; in all honesty, I still feel that way! But, I am happy for the experience I received creating the various projects. I do not yet know to what degree I will use technology in my classroom; this will depend on the resources I have provided in the classroom. But, even without working in a school that has One-to-One technology, I can still incorporate various videos and activities to be shown on the SmartBoard. This course has required that I create lesson plans that focus on technology; previous lesson plans I created did not include that technological aspect. Through this class I have been introduced to a great addition to my future lesson plans, and I am open to continuing to learn about the constantly changing world of educational technology! In order to be the best teachers we can be, we must still be open to learning as much as possible in our field.